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WE'RE BACK!! After an extended period of time, the GJ site is back online. Other priorities and a switch in webhosts forced the webmaster to mothball the site for a time. At this time, no reunion show is on the horizon. But hold that thought! One should never say never... :-) October 13, 2003 BARRY SAMSON NEWSPAPER ARTICLE! Still awaiting that reunion date... at this point, we're pretty much just waiting until an appropriate show at the Surf happens, and one that we can actually get in. As always, we'll keep you posted.. But till then- an article about former GJ drummer Barry Samson surfaced in the Globe-Gazette, the Mason City, IA newspaper. The article is a nice one, with information about Barry's strides in the movie industry. Check it out! August 28, 2003 BAND MEMBER UPDATE It's been awhile since the webmaster has added to this column, so Here We Go(Great song title!). As the scroller above indicates, the Nugent and Cooper shows didn't happen after all(sigh). However, Thin Lizzy is coming in October; and besides, HEY! We've waited 22 years for this, what's one more year?? :-) INDIVIDUAL MEMBER NEWS: Jim Surat is back in school for the year.... Ron's father had triple-bypass heart surgery last week(he's doing very wel, thank you), so he went up to Mason City IA to hang out with old dad and to lend some moral support. Special thanks to ZEER(Jay Sheahan to the uninitiated) for stopping in at the waiting room to say hi... and-- Zeer may have to go under the knife for some additional carpal tunnel surgery of his own.. Hang in there! This reunion date will happen..... May 9, 2003 9 NEW STUDIO PHOTOS Hot off the presses! Zeer just developed his roll of photos from GJ's early 2003 studio session at Junior's Motel studio in Fort Dodge, IA. Go here to see 9 brand new pics! GJ NOW ON BSAMO.COM! www.bsamo.com
is a brand new site featuring the MP3s, and websites over over 400 (and
growing daily) bands from all over the country. To access this site
and get tons of free MP3s, including of course Gray James, just create
a username and password(all totally free), then enter and knock yourself
out! To find us, just do a band search... another opportunity for
great exposure to GJ!!!! April 17, 2003 'BOYS ARE BACK' NOW ONLINE AND READY FOR DOWNLOAD!!!!!! The webmaster was attempting to open a GJ page on MP3.com; however, firewall issues here at his place of employment would not allow that. So- all MP3's are housed on the GJ site, and that's... OK(Stuart Smalley reference here). Without further ado- go the the Audio page now to either download all full-length MP3's, or to stream low-res versions for you instant gratification types. You can even download all CD artwork for printing your own CD jacket(you'll need a fairly decent color printer). With a CD burner and a free copy of the CD burning software MusicMatch, you can have your own copy of the new CD, yours absolutely FREE- no strings attached. KNOCK YOURSELF OUT! April 7, 2003 LOOK FOR THE GJ TUNES ON MP3.COM! The webmaster just received his copy of GJ's recent studio work at Junior's Motel.. look for all tunes(1 brand new, 5 classic tracks) to have their own page and presence at www.mp3.com. This site gets over a million hits a day, and will hopefully help GJ pick up a ton of exposure. Will let you know when that page is completed... JIM FINISHES VOCAL TRACKS- RETURNS TO MASON CITY Jim returned home after completing all vocals and song mixes this weekend at Junior's Motel studio. The webmaster is anxiously anticipating his copy of the finished CD- at that time, look for all tunes to be on this website in their entirety, ready for the world to download. GET READY TO ROCK!!!!! March 27, 2003 JIM SURAT TO FINISH VOCALS AT THE STUDIO MARCH 29 Lead singer Jim Surat will be at Junior's Motel studio this Saturday, March 29 to complete the vocals on the 6 tracks the band recorded in January. Be sure to watch Jim make music history be watching the Junior's Motel Studio Cam on that date! February 28, 2003 JAY SHEAHAN- KARAOKE STAR! Seems our own Jay
Sheahan, GJ drummer, is shooting to the top of the Karaoke world! Old
Zeer has won a number of local contests, and as a result of last night's
big win at the Rosebowl in Mason City, IA, he qualifies for the finals
in May- the winner gets a trip for 2 to Vegas and 500 bucks spending
cash. GO ZEER! February 26, 2003 FIRST GJ POSTER SHOT FOUND! Our first professional photo shoot was done in Minneapolis, MN in 1976, courtesy of photographer Chris Grajcyk. This photo was used for our first band poster- it's on Images, Page 3, or simply click here to see the picture that was lost for over 20 years February 21, 2003 97 KILLED IN FIRE AT GREAT WHITE SHOW! A nightclub
erupted in a raging fire during rock band Great White's pyrotechnics
display, killing at least 97 people and injuring more than 160 others
as frantic mobs rushed to escape. We in GJ are very fortunate that something like that never happened during our band's heyday.. we, too used flashpots, bombs, etc. in somewhat less than a safe manner... here's an example February 18, 2003 14 NEW PICTURES FOUND! The Webmaster just came across 14 pictures of Gray James that haven't been seen in years- just go to 'Page 3 to see them all!! NEW 'IMAGES' PAGE ADDED The time has come to add another general GJ Images page, with the exciting title of ''Page 3"! To kick it off, we've discovered 2 more pics for your GJ pleasure; one of roadies Zug & Weez playing cards in the back of the van, and another of Jim's present-day 'Wall of Fame'- his array of mighty Gibson guitars. You'll notice that on this picture, I've inserted insets of Jim playing these guitars back in our heyday, so you KNOW he's had them for awhile.. :-) February 3, 2003 JUST DISCOVERED- NEW WEEZ & SMOOT PHOTO! The webmaster, while going thru the closet, happened upon an old pic of roadies Weezer and Smoot! Smoot was a lesser-known roadie, who ran with the band for a time(including our infamous roadtrip to Canada). To see this pic, go to Images, Page 1, and scroll to the very bottom link on the page. In this photo, Weez & Smoot are seen in Weez's car, probably sitting at the Standard gas station parking lot at the north end of the Britt loop(I'll bet they were listening to Tommy Bolin's 'Post Toasty' at the time).... January 20, 2003 STILL MORE SESSION PHOTOS! The webmaster found 6 more photos from the studio session- go here to see them January 17, 2003 MORE SESSION PHOTOS! Jim sent the webmaster 5 digital photos he took while at the studio- go here to see them all! January 15, 2003 GRAY JAMES RETURNS FROM THE STUDIO The band returned from Junior's Motel studio on Monday, Jan. 13. After getting re-acquainted for the first time in many, many years, the boys got down to the business of rehearsing and recording. It was AMAZING how fast the chops and tightness returned.. unbelievable after more than 20 years... and, we were able to run thru enough material for an opening concert set. We had hoped for no more than laying down tracks for 2 tunes- instead, we did 6! One tune is brand new(Boys Are Back), and the rest are GJ classics that hold up just fine using today's recording studio technology, thank you. On the Audio page, you'll find 2 full-length classics from this session(Just Another Day, Show Me), as well as samples for the new tune and 3 other GJ originals- the samples are instrumental only at this point, as we didn't have enough time at this session to do all the vocals required(Jim is returning to Junior's Motel to do the remaining vocal tracks in a couple months; as soon as these are completed and the tunes mixed, we will of course have these finished songs on the GJ site). Also- check out a 3 minute video from this historic weekend! It's in the RealVideo format; as such, you'll need the RealOne Media Player to play these files. A whole bunch of photos from this weekend are forthcoming- in the meantime, check out these dozen or so! January 8, 2003 BARRY SAMSON BIO ON THE PERSONNEL PAGE As rumored, Barry did indeed become a movie producer living in LA! Here then, is his much-anticipated bio! Go to the Personnel page and click on the picture of Barry.. ALSO- We're mere days away from heading to the studio! Look for pictures, information, and possibly even some streaming video footage from this event! January 2, 2003 BARRY SAMSON IS ALIVE!!! The webmaster just received an email from former GJ drummer Barry Samson- seems he saw the site and dug it! Look for his new, updated bio on the Personnel page very soon.... November 21, 2002 GRAY JAMES HITS THE STUDIO Jan. 11-13, 2003 Just received word from Jay Sheahan that his wrists are healing nicely, and that as a result, the studio date(Jan. 11-13) is on! The band will concentrate on running thru some old material, maybe putting together and recording a couple new tunes. Look for pictures from this session upon the webmaster's return... October 23, 2002 First studio date tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11-13, 2003 The band is tentatively scheduling this 3 day stretch at Junior's Motel Recording Studio in Fort Dodge, IA . This will be GJ's first real work in almost 20 years.... October 11, 2002 Drummer Jay Sheahan emerges from surgery! Drummer Jay Sheahan is recuperating nicely from carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists- he'll be out of commission till November, at which time he should be able to attack his instrument like never before. The band is tentatively scheduling 3 days at Junior's Motel Recording Studio in Fort Dodge, IA sometime shortly after the 2002 holidays in order to begin rehearsals for the big reunion show.... August 2, 2002 Brand new Gray James tune- 'Flat'! The Gray James songwriting team has come out of retirement with Flat, the first new GJ song in almost 20 years!! This tune will blow you away- it's loaded with power and a relentless beat- kind of Nirvana meets Nine Inch Nails... You'll need an MP3 player like Winamp to hear it- go there, get it, then go to the Audio page and crank it UP July 25, 2002 Links page added to the GJ site I've added a Links page to the Gray James website-- it's loaded with links pertinent to GJ, it's band members, and their hometown area. You'll find web links to equipment we used(and still use), North Iowa websites of interest, bands that we covered, etc. Informative! July 15, 2002 GJ Website banner now on www.netconx.net Netconx.net is one of North Iowa's largest Internet Service providers; the www.netconx.net website gets 190,000 hits per month, mainly from North Iowans. Now, thanks to Tom at this ISP, the Gray James banner flies proudly on the ISP's home page, linking back to this site(and hopefully, bringing lots of their viewers over as well)..... again, thanks a bunch Tom!!! The GJ banner is at the top of the page, and loads at random with a handful of other banners- if you don't see the GJ banner, reload the page until you do... July 8, 2002 Jay Sheahan's GJ photo album added to the Images section GJ drummer Jay Sheahan sent approx. 35 photos, almost none of which I'd ever seen! All are now part of the Images section. Just go to PAGE 2 of Images and knock yourself out!! Also- included with the photo package from old Zeer was his updated Bio. Go to the Personnel page and click on Jay to read some little known facts about the man... July 4, 2002 Chance meeting with GJ founder Jim Surat today! The Webmaster(that's me, of course) took the family to Clear Lake, IA for a little R&R and kiddie carnival action over the holiday- and lo and behold, who did I run into in front of the merry-go-round but GJ founder Jim Surat!! Hadn't seen Jim in probably 10 years... we discussed the upcoming reunion gig(still just a possibility at this moment), families, etc. I'm calling it FATE. The gig will happen! July 1, 2002 6 new pics added to second 'Images' page GJ bassist Dave Lambert just emailed 6 never-before seen pics for the site. Because the Images page was getting pretty huge, plus the fact that GJ drummer Jay Sheahan is sending me his entire GJ photo album to scan and post on the site, I've created page 2 for the Images section- it's this page that contains Dave's new pics. Enjoy! June 25, 2002 Jay Sheahan to send more GJ pics for the website Just got off the phone with GJ drummer Jay 'Zeer' Sheahan- seems he's got an entire GJ photo album of his own, ready to scan for the site! Pics (and Jay's updated bio) will be posted as soon as they're received... ***** Barry Samson contacted (sort of) The webmaster was able to find former drummer Barry Samson's phone number, took a chance, and gave him a call(in Burbank, CA)... got his voice mail, left a message, and am awaiting a response.
GJ added to the Ultimate Band List website The GJ Website was added to www.ubl.com(The Ultimate Band List) today. This site, which contains links to virtually every band known to man(currently 100,000+), gets millions of hits daily. Just go to the site and do a search for Gray James... ***** New Jim pic on the Images page Jim was able to
dig through the closet and find a hitherto unknown Gray James picture-
it's another shot taken at the Britt Legion building in 1979. Go to
the images page and scroll down to: Also- it's becoming increasingly obvious that the site, due to the massive amounts of Javascript used to open separate windows, is by far best experienced by using Microsoft Explorer. Viewers using Netscape have reported some erratic behaviors in the pages-- so, avoid all the hassles and just get/use the latest version of Explorer. I've hated Netscape for years for this very reason! It's very unstable when it comes to layers, Javascript, etc.... June 7, 2002 GJ Website added to MidwestBands.com This site has been added to the 'Bands' page(click Bands, then choose State 'Iowa', then click on Gray James link)at www.MidwestBands.com, a great site that spotlights bands from all Miinesota to Oklahoma-- not bad for a band that broke up 20+ years ago..:-) ***** Guestbook added to GJ website The webmaster has added a guestbook to the GJ website; by all means, leave your thoughts and memories for everyone to see. Just go to the Contact page to either sign or simply to view the Guestbook... June 6, 2002 Personnel page nearly completed The webmaster has gotten a good start on the Personnel pages' individual bios; however, some info may be sketchy at best(and just plain wrong at worst), so if anyone has additional or corrected information, please contact me so that I can make the necessary changes/additions June 5, 2002 Gray James official website goes LIVE The official Gray James website went live today! This site contains lots of media, stories, memories, and information about one the best bands of the late '70's. The original GJ members check in here often, so feel free to send them your input- you may very well find your photos, recollections, etc. becoming part of this site. Anyone out there who has anything that's GJ related, please contact us- the site will be an ever-growing collection, and we need your help! Thanks to all!! ***** The original Gray James logo artwork has been digitized, put to CD-ROM, and sent to Bob Lewerke @ OneStop Printing in Blackhawk, CO for use in the new forthcoming Gray James T-Shirts, on sale soon right here on this site... |